The NY Times sees positive results from online slide shows

So the other day I exchanged emails with a friend of mine, Mark Lubell.  I've known Mark for a long time, way before I got interested in photography and before he became the executive director of Magnum. 

He was recently in Barcelona for business so we were able to get a chance to sit down over lunch and really talk shop. We spoke about the future of documentary or reportage photography, his vision for Magnum in Motion, the potential of online marketplaces like DRR, PhotoShelter, and even the potential of Flickr but more than anything else we talked about the potential of multi-media. I had just seen the highly publicized piece entitled "The Marlboro Man" by Luis Sinco which was published by Media Storm, so I knew we were on to something, but then we got some really good news! 

The New York Times announced on beet tv that they were seeing increased interest in their online content every since they started using a new multimedia template. You can see the interview here. So for a nice change the Times sees the value of photo essays and with their web presence they can deliver this content in a way that they can no longer afford to do so in print.  When I shared this news with Mark he was exstatic.  

He gave me permission to share his email here:

"When I first met with the Times....they moved out the entire Times.com into another building. It was a real war between the physical paper and the web. Now the web is back in the same building and everyone understands it is the future. 

The fact their slide shows makes up 7% of all traffic is amazing....because yes they rarely are good. They increased their web traffic by 30% after eliminating a fee....can you say hello Advertising money! I am sure the increase in 30% traffic made up three times what they were making in subscriptions. AOL did the same thing.

I agree the Times should be commended for their actions......now we must see if the market really cares about quality!"

Of course it's early to say anything based on such short term statistics but this is promising news for the documentary photographer.  

I'm putting an audio recorder on my Christmas list.

Adapt or perish

You don't have to be a regular reader of lightstalkers to hear the collective groaning in the photojournalism communities around the world. In every meeting and seminar I attend related to photography here in Barcelona I always hear the same sob stories from photographers.

Let's face it though, the traditional news media is at a crossroads because it is in fierce competition with free print media, television and online content. Simply put, people are buying fewer newspapers and magazines and classified advertising has gone to places like craigslist. We read new articles everyday about staff cuts and job losses at major newspapers.  Here's one from the New York Times. The way I see it we have two options, adapt or perish. 

Some photographers have taken this challenge head on and plowed forward into the world of multimedia. If you want to take a look at some great stories that are just as short and effective as documentary films take a look at some of the stories at MediaStorm.

My favorites are Luis Sinco's "The Marlboro Marine" and Ed Kashi's "Iraqi Kurdistan".

First day on the job...

This is my first day activating the blog dokumentary fotografr, where I will try to post the most interesting content I find that relates to documentary photography and photography in general.